Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
9 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
9 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, 'Who is the LORD ?'
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.
-Proverbs 30:8-9
When you think of being financially free, what do you think of? Lets list a few things: Owing no man anything, Being free to spend your money however you please, Having all power and control over your funds... These things are true in a sense of being "free", however, I have found that to truly be free of something, anything! is to give it to God. Think about it, when you have a burden, do you take it upon yourself to bury it within you and struggle to get the weight off? Or do you submit yourself to Him and ask Him to carry your burden that you may right yourself before Him? The latter is much easier to do, and the right way of doing things! If you really stop to think about it, God created everything we have in the world today. Without some divine inspiration, a single man could not come up with the idea to build a computer, or come up with any intelligent ideas at all. So saying that, God also created money, and thus gave it to us to use. It took me forever to figure this out. Through my studies I have found 4 purposes God gave us money for:
1) To cover our basic needs: ie: food, shelter, clothing, etc. As the proverb above states: give me neither poverty nor riches. God does not want his children to dwell in a state of poverty, as the last part of the proverb verse states Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God. God allows us to use His money to provide for us and our families. This however doesnt mean that we rack up a ton of debt giving our family excessivly cushy lifestlyes, he asks that we live within our means, so that we dont become so poor we dishonor him by just trying to exist, and that we dont get so rich that the devil's world lets us forget our Dear Lord.
2) Money gives us direction from Him: Have you ever really really wanted something but ended up not being able to come up with the funds? Would that thing be frivolous in God's eyes? I have learned that when God knows we do not need something, He will make the funds unavailable to us and we need to remember to see this as an act of God, that it is not his will for us to have this thing. Too many times I have cursed aloud about why me? why cant I have what I need? When I stopped and realized that perhaps having this thing is not the best thing for me and God is the one taking care of me and my finances, it was so much easier to deal with and to distinguish between wants and need.
3) Money is provided to keep Gods charity going. THe world we live in runs on money. Those who have it thrive in the material sense, and those who dont have it, live in poverty. Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. -Mark 10:21 How we utilize our money for charity is our decision. We are able to use the funds to buy winter coats for a coat drive, to buy material and make blankets for the homeless shelter, or we can give outright donations to places that need the help. I also am of the opinion that thithing is a form of charity. You are placing your funds in the hands of the church to better the fellowship you attend. However, I have found that God blesses only sincere gifts. If you give out "because I have to..." of "because my church said so", or have a slight grudge when giving your 10% tithing... those are not sincere gifts. WHen you give out of pure love as our Saviour did, you will reap the rewards of Him.
4) And finally, the gift of money shows us just how powerful God is. Have you ever had enough and then it was all taken away from you only for you to find out later that there was a big lesson in all of this? God can take and give freely, after all, He is God. When I got laid off, it was for a good reason, and although I had no idea what was going on, I kept my faith and said, "God, I may not understand your will, but I am willing to subject myself to thee." In that entire 2 months, we were 2 months behind on our bills, our BIG bills, but we never went hungry, and we never gave up on Him. Finally a job opportunity came up and I took it and within a week, things fell into place for us to move to Boise, right next to my work, and and spot opened up for Zac in the welding program at BSU. And the week after, we received such a miraculous blessing from my mother who out of the blue, just felt promptings of the Spirit to catch us up on our bills. And here we are today, we have all that we need, we are happy, and our faith has been set more in stone all due to a lack of funds. He is Alpha and Omega, He gives and takes away. He is the Lord Almighty.
Lord, please help me to remember that it is thou that hast given me money to use. Please let me remember to spend it in a fashion that would please thee and also to keep me out of debt. I humbly say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
